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WHAT: Two archival music channels with very different music policies.
HOW MANY SUBSCRIBERS AT TIME OF WRITING: 7,570 and 312 respectively.
WHY SHOULD I CARE: For most of us, our relationship with YouTube began with music. We all hark back to the halcyon days of lyric videos made in Windows Movie Maker with endearing spelling errors. It was a simpler time, before Vevo, before ads, when uploading an Akon song alongside a slideshow of photos of Akon and the word "AKON" written in clip art was a true labour of love. There are less of these going around now as all the major labels have entered into aggressive takedown campaigns against any video which uses their music without authorisation. So now music on Youtube is less some kid in year 8 fade-cutting the lyrics to "Heartbroken" by T2, and more Meghan Trainor selling you Samsung Galaxys and subscriptions to Reader's Digest.Still, even though it doesn't have the cute, youthfulness it once did, Youtube still has an impeccable archive of weird and varied genres of music: old flamenco, prog rock, Memphis rap – if it exists, it's probably on YouTube somewhere. The two channels I've chosen today are very different in terms of content, but share their desire to post music you won't find on Tidal.Let's begin with SilverDrizzle. As I'm sure we're all aware, grime music is hitting the mainstream in a way it never has before. After a fallow period in the late 2000s, it was given a powerful rejuvenation via the return of some beloved originators - Wiley, Skepta, JME - and the breakthrough of some exciting young talent. But while its new faces and sounds are receiving their deserved kudos, one guy has been mining and researching the heady backlog of lost instrumentals, radio sets, freestyles and everything else: from a second version of So Solid's Dilemma to a "slew" of grime's current boss don Skepta by former SLK MC Van Damage (who I'm told now runs a strip club). SliverDrizzle exposes all of the minutiae in this varied, important scene.
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